Entries in Weight Loss
(12)

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Jessica Simpson Collection(NEW YORK) -- Jessica Simpson showed off her 60-pound weight loss at an event for her Jessica Simpson collection in Tampa on Saturday, Us Weekly reports.

The 32-year-old new mom, who gave birth to her daughter Maxwell with fiance Eric Johnson in May, told Us Weekly last month that she had lost all 60 of the 70 pounds she gained while pregnant. She posed for photos in a bright pink blazer and bootcut jeans at the event, attended by her sister Ashlee, according to Us Weekly.

James Devaney/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) -- Halloween was a treat for Jessica Simpson. Wednesday on Twitter, the 32-year-old new mom and Weight Watchers spokeswoman showed off her figure in a milk maid’s outfit, complete with a lace miniskirt, thigh-high boots and a waist-cinching corset.

Her fiance Eric Johnson posed in a Braveheart costume holding their daughter, Maxwell Drew Johnson, who was dressed as a rooster.

Simpson’s been on the slim-down warpath since giving birth in May and signing a reported $3 million dollar contract to be the celebrity face of Weight Watchers. In September, she told Katie Couric she had lost more than 40 pounds.

“During pregnancy, I didn’t really think about it,” she said about her weight gain. “I thought my doctors were telling me that it was just a lot of water and whenever my water broke my whole entire stomach would go down but that did not happen. All the weight did not come out with the baby.”

One of her biggest obstacles has been staying away from chocolate.

“I’ve never wanted chocolate more in my life,” she told Couric. I’ve had to really stay focused and focus on my diet and concentrate on what I’m putting in my body.”

Perhaps the Simpson-Johnson house will be giving out apples this year.

ABC News(NEW YORK) -- When Mandisa Hundley auditioned for American Idol in 2006 she thought it would be her chance to make it big in music.

Instead, the opportunity turned into heartbreak, thanks to a comment from then-judge Simon Cowell.

As Hundley, 35, stood before the judges, Cowell, known for his often brutal appraisals of contestants, commented not on Hundley’s soulful sound, but her size.

“Do we have a bigger stage this year?” he said.

“It was just hurtful and mean and the one thing I didn’t want to have happen,” Hundley said.

The gospel singer, who told Cowell on that show that she forgave him, also took Cowell’s words to heart and changed her life.

She set a goal to lose 100 pounds and started by changing her diet.

She also found a love for the dance-inspired exercise craze, Zumba, and hired a personal trainer.

Hundley says her fans and her religion kept her on track. However, she does admit that she struggled to keep up her motivation at times.

“There was a time when I didn’t feel like getting up and going to Zumba one day. I had done everything right. I got on the scale and I had gained 1.8 pounds, so I tweeted that I was through with it. And when I woke up from my nap I had tons of messages saying, ‘Don’t give up.’ And more than that, they said, ‘I appreciate knowing that you’re real and that you go through difficult times,’” Hudley said this morning on Good Morning America.

Today, six years later, Hundley is 100 pounds thinner and back in the spotlight.

Hundley has a new EP, appropriately titled “Get Movin’,” out and her first CD, True Beauty, scheduled to hit stores in a few weeks.

When asked what she would say to Cowell now if given the opportunity, she humbly replied, “Well, the same thing that I said to him back in my season. I forgave him for what he said to me, because I’ve been forgiven for so much. I can extend that same grace to him. But then I would follow it up and say, ‘How ya like me now?’”

The 30-year-old pop singer is this summer’s favorite magazine cover girl, sporting a new sleek, toned figure after reportedly dropping 30 pounds. But weight, something Clarkson has struggled with for years, remains a touchy subject for the pop star.

“I don’t like talking about it so much because I think people put so much emphasis on it and lose the fact that what I do is music,” Clarkson told “Nightline.” “I sound the same regardless if I’m 20 pounds heavier or 20 pounds light, and I think that’s the key thing with my fans and why they continue to be loyal because I’m that type of person.”

Clarkson’s motivation for slimming down, she said, came after her boyfriend “kept complaining” about his trainer’s tough workouts so she decided to give it a try — the singer is dating 35-year-old talent manager Brandon Blackstock, who is the son of her manager, Narvel Blackstock, and the stepson of country legend Reba McIntire.

“I went because I wanted to, that was my thing,” Clarkson said. “And she killed me.”

The two-time Grammy winner is still reveling in the smashing success of her most recent empowerment single, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” and is a mentor on ABC’s new competitive singing show, “Duets.” But since being crowned the first “American Idol” winner 10 years ago, Clarkson’s fluctuating weight has continued to be a topic of tabloid conversation.

“Everybody talks about weight, whether I’m skinny or bigger, they always talk about it,” she said. “I’m already up on a pedestal. People already look at everything I do.”

And Clarkson is not the only “Idol” contestant to publicly battle the waistline bulge during the show’s reign. Last year’s runner-up Lauren Alaina, 16, reportedly shed 25 pounds in her five months on the show. Breakout “Idol” stars Jennifer Hudson and Jordin Sparks have also had stunning weight-loss transformations.

In an April interview with “Nightline,” country sensation Carrie Underwood, whose career was also launched on “Idol,” opened up about her struggles with keeping a trim figure. While on “Idol,” Underwood said she was “gently” told that she needed to lose weight.

“I was heavier than I ever had been,” the 29-year-old singer said. “But they lock you in a room all day. You’re waiting around for your rehearsals, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t do anything, you’re waiting because you don’t know when you’re going to be up, and there’s food there.”

After “Idol,” Underwood became a vegan and said she “immediately slimmed down” after giving up meat. She also brings her personal trainer on tour with her.

“When I’m on the road, [exercise] is part of my daily life,” Underwood said. “I do my own hair and make-up on tour, so I feel like I … deserve to have someone motivating me, helping me be the best that I can be physically so I can get through the rigorous tour.”

Warner Bros. Pictures(NEW YORK) -- There are diets and then there are diets.

Take, for example, actress Anne Hathaway, who in preparation to fit into her Catwoman suit for The Dark Knight Rises and play the tuberculosis-ridden prostitute Fantine in the upcoming film version of Les Miserables, the 29-year-old actress subsisted on a 500 calorie diet of radishes and hummus.

"I'm on day six of detox," she told the latest issue of Allure magazine, adding "this diet makes me break out, so I love that. Nothing like living on hummus and radishes and then be all, 'And I got a pimple. Yeah!'"

On top of that, she's been working out.

"The Catwoman suit. It was a psychological terrorist," she said. "... the suit, thoughts of my suit, changing my life so I would fit into that suit ... it dominated my year. I went into the gym for 10 months and didn't come out."

Jordan Strauss/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) -- Singer Carnie Wilson, who has long battled weight issues, has had weight-loss surgery for a second time.

Wilson, of the group Wilson Phillips, confirmed to People magazine that she had lap-band surgery, a procedure in which an adjustable band is place around the patient's stomach in order to limit the amount of food consumed.

She told that she has lost 30 pounds since undergoing the procedure on Jan. 18.

The 43-year-old had previously lost 150 when she underwent the far more invasive gastric bypass surgery in 1999. At the time, Wilson weighed more than 300 pounds. That procedure reduced the size of her stomach to that of an egg.

Wilson regained some of the weight when she had her daughters, 6-year-old Lola and 2-year-old Luciana.

Speaking of her weight gain, Wilson told People in 2010 that having children "derailed" her.

She described the second surgery as "the right decision."

"I'm doing really well so far," she told People. "It's all about taking good care of myself."

Don Arnold/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- A New York-based law firm has followed through on a threat to file a class-action lawsuit against Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian over their endorsement of the weight-loss product QuickTrim.

According to E! Online, Bursor & Fisher filed the $5 million lawsuit in New York on behalf of four customers who allege they used Quicktrim and did not see the same results touted by the Kardashians. The customers believe the sisters' weight loss cannot be solely attributed to QuickTrim.

Both Kim and Khloe have claimed they lost 15 pounds using QuickTrim, which is manufactured by the New Jersey-based company Windmill Health Products.

The firm hinted two weeks ago to the New York Post that a lawsuit against the Kardashians, among other defendants, was forthcoming.﻿

Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) -- Ali Vincent underwent a life-changing transformation when she lost 122 pounds, and in the process became the first woman to ever win the popular TV weight-loss competition, The Biggest Loser.

"I went from a size 22 to a size 4. I never even knew 4 existed," she said in an appearance on Good Morning America Friday.

Vincent, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, had weighed 234 pounds. A former competitive swimmer, she maintained her healthy swimmer's appetite even after she left the sport, and as a result, slowly gained weight -- 5 pounds each year for 13 years.

Vincent admits she used food as a crutch, explaining that she'd tried many different diets before going back to her old habits.

"The small changes [are] what helped me," she said, adding that she started out by getting on a treadmill for one minute, getting off, then getting back on again for another minute.

The mantra that spurred her on was "believe it, be it," and she's now taking that positive message to her new challenge: her new show, Live Big With Ali Vincent, through which she aims to help others who are struggling with their own weight problems.

She'll take a hands-on approach, helping them not only in the gym but at home, too, where she will teach them how to eat better to achieve their goals, get them involved in new activities and help them learn how to overcome psychological obstacles.

Vincent has also written a book about her experiences, Believe It, Be It: How Being the Biggest Loser Won Me Back My Life.

As for her secret to keeping the weight off? She has a simple, no-excuses mandate: exercise anywhere, anytime.

"I do lunges in grocery stores, I do squats in lines. I jump rope in an airport," she said.